NOTE: The following life story was written by a dear friend of Connie's, Alan Barber. He made this memorial and transferred it to me without me even asking him. I didn't change a word other than adding this note.

LIFESTORY:

Mr. Connie Goodman was an honest, hard-working man. His love for his family and friends was apparent by his compassion, humor, and wit. A day did not go by that Connie's family was unsure of his devotion and love for them.

Connie was born in a different era, when the Roaring Twenties were alive and well. In Hornbeck, Tennessee, Henry and Rebecca (Blythe) Goodman welcomed their son Connie into the family on the twenty-seventh of March in 1922.

The Goodman family were hard working people, and Connie grew up picking cotton and loading potatoes. It was early in life that he learned the importance of hard work in order to support a family. Unfortunately, Connie's mother died at a very young age due to heart problems. Living with his brother, Grover, for a short time, Connie mourned his mother as he learned how to find strength to go on. The family then moved to Muskegon, Michigan, to find better work. Only Grover stayed behind in Tennessee.

Starting their new life in Muskegon, Connie found first at NK Bowling Lanes as a pinsetter and then at Lakey Foundry, while the family lived in an apartment on

Webster Avenue. The 1940s were dominated by World War II, and it was during that time that Connie was drafted into the United States Army and became part of the Air Force. He proudly served between 1943 and 1945.

After his time in the Air Force, Connie was ready for the next chapter of his life when he met the woman he was to marry. Her name was Clara Belle Tyler, and she was quite a catch. Clara shared many interests with Connie, and they fell quickly in love. The couple were soon married and moved to Gary, Indiana where Connie had found work. The couple welcomed the birth of their son, Lee, on October 1, 1951.

As a father, Connie was fair, honest, and fun. He loved to take Lee on fishing trips. The whole family were music lovers, with Connie on his flattop hobby guitar and Clara and Lee singing along. They were a close and loving family.